The present invention disclosed herein relates to a carbon nanotube production facility, and more particularly, to an apparatus for fluidizing metal catalyst particles to produce carbon nanotubes, and a carbon nanotube production facility and method.
Carbon nanotubes are produced by bonding three carbon atoms adjacent to one carbon atom to form a hexagonal ring shape, and these hexagonal rings are bonded to form a flat, hexagonal beehive lattice, which is then rolled into a cylindrical or tubular shape.
Depending on its projection, a carbon nanotube is a material characterized by its ability to exhibit conductivity of metal or conductivity of semiconductors, is widely applicable in many technical fields, and is being heralded as the new material of the future. For example, carbon nanotubes can be applied to terminals of electrochemical storage devices such as secondary cells, fuel cells, and super capacitors, to electromagnetic radiation blocking devices, field emission displays, and gas sensors.
Methods for producing carbon nanotubes are diverse, and include electrical discharge, laser deposition, and thermal decomposition vapor deposition. As mass production of carbon nanotubes has recently become an issue, technology utilizing a fluidizing bed reactor conducive to large-scale integration is being favored. Technology utilizing a fluidizing bed reactor involves a method of dispersing and reacting metal catalyst particles and a hydrocarbon-based source gas in a high temperature reactor to generate carbon nanotubes. That is, carbon nanotubes are grown on metal catalysts by suspending the metal catalyst in the source gas inside the reactor and thermally decomposing the source gas.
However, this production technology utilizing a fluidizing bed reactor is a technology still in its infancy, which some institutes are only beginning to research, and therefore, its use in mass-production applications is currently unfeasible.